You poor souls in the NE.

[Derek G]

So I was cruising through my neighborhood and decided to stop in and take a look at a 2010 5th Gen and a local dealership. The truck looked nice had under 30K miles on it, was clean and seemed to be taken care of quite well. Then I decided to take a look at the undercarriage. Every single weld bead, suspension nut and bolt had corrosion on it. I got up and asked the sales person if she knew if the dealer got it on trade or at auction because of the corrosion (I'm in TX). She said they took it on trade, so I asked her for the vehicle history. Turns out the truck had spent it's whole life in Vermont until about two weeks before it was traded. I was shocked at the amount of salt damage to a 3yr old truck with lower than average miles.

 

[koulee]

More than likely previous owner dumped it before the truck's condition deteriorated even further. Sad really because the only thing they really had to do was hose down the undercarriage after driving it on salted roads.

 

[cbielat]

Mine looks the same. During the winter I spray down the undercarriage once a week if the roads have been bad. Even after any type of trip off road. Mine still looks like that and my truck is only a year and a half old(bought brand spankin' new). It's inevitable up here.

 

[Derek G]

I guess that's the difference between salt and magnesium chloride. We spend a lot of winters up in Colorado and don't have any corrosion, neither does my neighbor who lives there full time.

 

[Whitey13]

More than likely previous owner dumped it before the truck's condition deteriorated even further. Sad really because the only thing they really had to do was hose down the undercarriage after driving it on salted roads.

Do you have any idea how completely unreasonable that is?

 

[rfuree11]

Let me preface this by saying I look at cars on a daily basis for a living. I don't know what it is about VT, but it seems like every car that comes out of that state ages twice as quickly as other cars in New England. Granted, other New England cars rust as well, but VT cars are a completely different beast.

 

[koulee]

Do you have any idea how completely unreasonable that is?

A 2010 5th gen with less than 30k on the clock. There's rust all over the frame and its sitting on a used car lot waiting for a new owner. What do you think happened?

 

[Whitey13]

A 2010 5th gen with less than 30k on the clock. There's rust all over the frame and its sitting on a used car lot waiting for a new owner. What do you think happened?

I was born and raised in Massachusetts. I know what happened. You missed my point.

 

[afg10000]

Your thread said poor souls in NE - I thought you meant Nebraska. i was going to say that I totally agree. Can't speak for Vermont, but in Omaha they have a salt budget. It seems they have to dump their quota on the streets whether it snows 2" or 32". They've also come up with a new way of destroying roads and cars. A new brine "solution" they quite liberally coat the streets with in preparation for a 1" snowfall. The roads are literally white. There are still tons of idiotic wrecks from the 1" snow so I'm really not sure it works. Bottom line where is I could by a brand new vehicle off the lot. Wash 3-4 times a week in the winter and it would still have rust underneath a year later. It's unavoidable -

 

[chmura]

That's just surface rust. Not to worry, yes it looks ugly. But just brush it off with a metal brush and repaint. Very simple fix.

 

[eddiebx]

A 2010 5th gen with less than 30k on the clock. There's rust all over the frame and its sitting on a used car lot waiting for a new owner. What do you think happened?

Let me know how easy it is to hose down your under carriage after each drive in sub-freezing temperatures :hello:

Assuming you can get the frozen hose to squirt water, good luck trying to back out the ice skating rink, uhhh I mean driveway the next morning :smow:

But on a serious not, it's not really plausible, when it's cold enough outside you'd basically be spraying on a layer of ice that freezes to the surface almost instantly. I found that out the hard way when I tried to wash off something real quick at one of those self-serve washing bays in the dead of winter. There was at least a 1" slab of ice sitting inside my front skid plate by the time I was done!

 

[wadle5]

Let me know how easy it is to hose down your under carriage after each drive in sub-freezing temperatures :hello:

Assuming you can get the frozen hose to squirt water, good luck trying to back out the ice skating rink, uhhh I mean driveway the next morning :smow:

But on a serious not, it's not really plausible, when it's cold enough outside you'd basically be spraying on a layer of ice that freezes to the surface almost instantly. I found that out the hard way when I tried to wash off something real quick at one of those self-serve washing bays in the dead of winter. There was at least a 1" slab of ice sitting inside my front skid plate by the time I was done!

When i lived with my parents I sprayed my car off frequently. Fortunately they had a 2500 sq ft heated garage with proper drainage systems...

 

[RonMAIDEN]

These pics were of a NE 3rd gen 4Runner from a couple years ago




These are of my '99;I'll take our Mag Chloride and another plus for our dry Colorado air.

 

[jdkilroy]

Now you know why I put mine away for the winter ...

 

[Chrisinvermont]

Now you know why I put mine away for the winter ...

I am glad I sprang for the undercoating. better than the bare metal. Going to be interested in how the new salt brine will affect the Baja rack. I now have salt all over the roof as well as the sides and under carriage.

We may have to go back to the "good" old days of spraying waste oil on the under carriage to protect.

 

[eddiebx]

Now you know why I put mine away for the winter ...

But that's the 4runner's time to shine! :lookout:

 

[03_4x4Runner]

I grew up in the rustbelt in Ohio. All my cars rusted out. I now live in the desert in Arizona. My 03 4runner still looks like new underneath. I could never go back to the rustbelt.

 

[cbielat]

My rear springs have completely rusted.

 

[koulee]

Fortunately for me, the only thing I've ever had rust on me were my disk brakes after a wash on an older Camry .